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The Bank of Ann Arbor doesn't necessarily want you as a customer.
It doesn't want patrons from random towns, in arbitrary states.
Locally owned and operated, the Michigan-based bank, founded in
1995, has always had the goal of dominating in its own backyard.
Over the last two years, through a series of billboards featuring
inside jokes targeted at locals, it has begun to do just that.

Each billboard starts with the words "Non-local banks think" and
ends with a wisecrack, such as "Mani Osteria plays for the
Tigers" (it's actually a popular restaurant) or "the Jerk Pit is
a singles bar" (it's a Jamaican food joint). Many punch lines
were crowdsourced during a seven-week Facebook campaign that drew
700 submissions.

But as inspired as the social media tactic was in terms of
driving engagement, the idea to display the results roadside is
what really helped the bank lure new customers. "Entrepreneurs
who take bold risks with their creative campaigns find that
outdoor advertising is actually one of the best options to
increase local brand awareness and competitive advantage," says
Bank of Ann Arbor president and CEO Tim Marshall.

Billboards may seem like big-brand territory, but in truth
national campaigns account for only 16 percent of billboard
revenue, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of
America (OAAA). Ads by local companies--80 percent of which have
fewer than 50 employees--generate 75 percent of billboard revenue
in the U.S. (The remainder comes from public service
announcements.)

"Out-of-home advertising is really a great equalizer," says OAAA
chief marketing officer Stephen Freitas. "It allows a local
advertiser to make their brand as prominent, bold and impactful
as a national advertiser."

Columbus, Ohio-based Members First Credit Union lit up digital
billboards as part of an effort to target new families and young
professionals. The campaign, which began in May 2010, streamed
the institution's Twitter feed, displaying everything from
invitations to information on bank events to updates on loan
rates. The digital integration paid off, helping the credit union
experience its best-ever period of growth and lower its average
member age from 57 to 45.5 years old.

Similarly, Bank of Ann Arbor saw big returns from its billboard
campaign. In 2011, more customers signed on with the financial
institution than ever before, adding $77 million in deposits, for
a total of $686 million. As a result, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. ranked the company the fourth-largest bank in the
area that year, up from seventh in 2010.

"We created an idea that was so simple that it could be
crowdsourced and really effective," says Ernie Perich, president
and creative director of Ann Arbor-based Perich Advertising +
Design, which produced the Bank of Ann Arbor's campaign. "All
people needed to do was know the local town and have some fun
with it."

Regardless of a campaign's creative merits, out-of-home
advertising is, fundamentally, a real-estate game. "When we
looked at our budget, we had to create as efficient a delivery
system as we could," Marshall says. (Bank of Ann Arbor declined
to comment on the cost of the campaign.) To that end, the bank
bought spots along busy highways, in addition to low-cost
newspaper and radio ads. The goal was to reach potential
customers where they are. For the Bank of Ann Arbor, that's right
in their own backyard--and the spot in their hearts reserved for
hometown pride.